Tip of the Week — 3/16/09

Posted in Gardening Tips on March 16 2009, by Sonia Uyterhoeven

Good Husbandry

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden.

While good husbandry is an essential quality for any man, it is equally important for your plants. Now, what exactly is good husbandry some of you may be asking? For the former, I will wisely defer. As far as your plants are concerned, however, good husbandry essentially means good breeding practices. It is about selecting desirable qualities.

While I was in England last summer visiting the legendary garden Great Dixter, plantsman and designer Fergus Garrett spoke a great deal about good husbandry. It is important to do a little bit of research before you purchase a plant. Fergus pointed out that in some cases when you are choosing certain cultivars (cultivated varieties) you are making the choice between plants that will flower for 4 months versus 3 weeks.

Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’ is a good geranium and a former award winner, but it has now been superseded by the long-flowering Geranium ‘Rozanne’. In England a popular geranium is the longstanding Geranium ‘Ann Folkard’. A new addition to the market these days is Geranium ‘Ann Thompson’, whose magenta flowers last longer and are equally glorious.

It is not only about finding plants that flower well. There are other attributes to consider when choosing cultivars such as growth habit, the ability to form good seed heads and berries.

In terms of his selection of dahlias, Fergus looks for cultivars with a good, strong branch structure. He likes dahlias where he can simply stake the main stem and then secure strong lateral branches to the framework. Some of the favorite dahlias at Great Dixter are Dahlia ‘David Howard’, D. ‘Wittemans Superba’, and D. ‘Hillcrest Royal’.

If you are at a loss for choosing good cultivars for your garden and are searching for perennials that will not only perform well throughout the summer with their flowers but will also fade with dignity, form good seed heads, and maintain an attractive appearance, then come visit the Botanical Garden’s Seasonal Walk.

This year we had the famous Dutch designer Piet Oudolf team up with the Dutch bulb designer Jacqueline van der Kloet to create our seasonal display. This border will be full of many of Oudolf’s own introductions from his nursery in Hummelo, the Netherlands. It will include Echinacea ‘Fatal Attraction’, E. ‘Green Jewel’, and E. ‘Vintage Wine’ as well as Salvia ‘Eveline’.

Along with these Dutch introductions are stalwarts in our own nursery trade such as Astilbe ‘Visions in Pink’, Actaea ‘Brunette’, Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’, and many more. Bring your notepad and pencil and enjoy a stroll down Seasonal Walk for a wonderful educational experience. The bulbs will start the show early in the season and the perennials and ornamental grasses will take over during the course of the summer and close out the show in the fall.